Building from the Ground Up: GSEA’s Anthony Rosa Starts His Own Factory in Peru

Anthony Rosa is contributing to the fashion industry in a very interesting way. The freshman entrepreneur spent 6 years traveling back and forth from China learning the apparel manufacturing industry in hopes to create his own garment factory and now that dream has finally come true in the form of Global Sourcing & Enterprise Apparel (GSEA) Fashion Group, LLC in Lima, Peru.  Rosa interestingly enough got the idea for GSEA from a coincidental conversation with a janitor from Peru then decided after the insightful talk,  that Peru would be the perfect place to start his own factory.

When asked about the inspiration to start the company Rosa said it was mainly about having ownership and control.

“We wanted to become the source and control the quality of the product with our name on it,” Rosa said. “Not leaving it up to a middle man or a foreign factory to fall short on delivery, quality of raw materials used and workmanship in production.”

GSEA is “factory-direct”, meaning that it sells directly to the end-user of a product and since it is based in Peru, the factory has access to world-class Pima Cotton.  Rosa owns and operates the apparel manufacturing plant and is partnering with George Criscione, former president of men’s denim at Calvin Klein to continue to develop the factory.

Now, GSEA Fashion Group is focusing on producing branded clothing for fashion labels worldwide. Rosa said Lima was the ideal location for the factory because it offers a combination of affordable land, closeness to the U.S., low manufacturing costs, and an ongoing supply of high quality pima cotton. The GSEA Peru factory handles orders that come in through the GSEA Fashion Group office in New York’s fashion district, which also holds three of GSEA’s brands: got G.A.M.E.?, Project Threads and newly launched Glossy Chick targeted at young girls and as Rosa continues to grow GSEA, money will be necessary.

“We are committed to the growth of our factory in Peru and expanding our operation here in NY.  Our attention now turns to seeking the right partner to help infuse the growth capital required to allow for that type of expansion and increase our production capacity,” Rosa said.

As for the future of the company, Rosa believes in its continued growth and success.

“We believe the future of GSEA Fashion Group will include both expansion in Peru and NY – expanding our production capacity, allowing our company to bring a variety of proprietary brands to market while at the same time producing the very best Pima Cotton merchandise for our selected customers that care about quality,” Rosa said. “We plan to bring transparency to the production process by opening our factory doors and giving a face to each garment produced in an industry where most all cut and sew operators are oftentimes hidden behind factory walls.”

By: Ashley Paintsil

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